Soldier fatally shot outside tavern In unrelated incident, driver is critically shot and stabbed near his home

February 08, 1991|By Joe Nawrozki and William B. Talbott | Joe Nawrozki and William B. Talbott,Evening Sun Staff Robert Hilson Jr. contributed to this story.

A Baltimore man whose reserve unit was participating in the stateside aspect of Operation Desert Storm was shot and killed last night outside a West Baltimore tavern, city police said.

Meanwhile, in other violence, city police arrested a suspect in an attack today in the 1000 block of Hunter St. The victim was shot and stabbed and left in critical condition at University Hospital.

In the slaying, Sgt. Orlando T. Davis, 27, of the 2300 block of McCulloh St., was shot once in the chest and pronounced dead shortly after 11 p.m. at the Shock-Trauma Unit in Baltimore.

Davis was shot by a man about 10:15 p.m. in front of Mel's Tavern in the 2200 block of Reisterstown Road. The shooting followed a brief conversation, police said.

Police had few details about the killing.

One of the tavern's owners, Richard Lane, said today he knew the victim "very well" and served in his unit, the 135th Mobile Aerial Port Flight of the Maryland Air National Guard.

L Lane, however, would not discuss his friend or the shooting.

Capt. Mike Milord, a spokesman for the state National Guard, said Davis had been in the Guard since September 1986 and served as an air transportation specialist. His unit was activated Dec. 27 and Davis had been serving at Dover Air Force Base, Del.

Milord said the 135th recently had been working 12-hour shifts, five days a week at Dover loading cargo planes bound for the war in the Persian Gulf. The cargo included such items as food, spare parts and ammunition.

Davis last worked the 7 a.m.-to-7 p.m. shift Wednesday and was off yesterday and today. Davis was scheduled to report back to Dover at 7 a.m. tomorrow, Milord said.

William Taylor, a neighbor of the victim in the 2300 block of McCulloh St., said today Davis had an assortment of odd jobs before joining the military.

"But he was never in any trouble as far as I know," Taylor said. "He knew what he wanted to do, but didn't seem able to get it. Maybe by joining the service he thought he could that way."

He said he often saw Davis coming home late.

"He didn't need to join the Army to be a man," Taylor said. "He was already one. Today if someone is clean and ain't hooked on nothing and stays out of trouble, he's a man."

In the other incident, Mack Norman, 36, of the Hunter Square Apartments, was pulling into the apartment parking lot shortly after 7 a.m. today when a man standing in the driveway opened fire with a .38-caliber revolver.

The windshield and two windows of Norman's 1989 Mitsubishi were shattered as the gunman reloaded his weapon and fired another six shots at Norman, who was believed to have been hit at least once.

As Norman got out of his car and tried to make it to his apartment, the assailant pulled out a large hunting knife. The attacker knocked Norman to the ground and began stabbing him.

Police, notified by residents, arrived to find the suspect on top of Norman with the knife. A 42-year-old northeast Baltimore man was arrested and was to be charged later today in the attack.

Police said the motive for attack was related to the assailant's wife, who was staying in Norman's apartment.